This Company Will Fill Your Home up With Hidden Passages and Trick Doors

When one man was trying to get a false door installed in his home a la Scooby Doo, he was finding it hard to actually find a company that would make one. So he decided to build it himself.

It's hard to deny just how cool it is to have a hidden or false door in your home that leads to a secret passageway and, ideally, your own lair.

No, I'm not talking about being some kind of criminal mastermind or hero who stalks through the night looking for baddies to bash. (although both are pretty cool options) I'm talking about the appeal of just having your own secret space in your home. Not only do you have your own secret space, but you could very well be the only one who knows how to access it because the entrance will look like some innocuous home fixture.

At least I think it'd be cool to have that in my house, and so did Steve Humble, the founder of Creative Home Engineering. When he kept hitting a dead end with contractors who couldn't fashion him the false door of his dreams, he decided that he'd up and make it too.

Then he had an idea: he couldn't be the only one that wanted this stuff in his house, which is why he launched CHE in the first place.

Source: hidden passageway

There were some hurdles to getting his business started, for instance, he needed a specialized license that would allow him to manufacture and sell hidden passageways (I wish that was a major option in college). After taking care of that, he then launched his business and he's had over 250 clients to date who've had secret lairs built in their home.

Each job is custom and a quick look through Humble's portfolio shows the breadth of his body of work. This guy's company can pretty much make a secret passageway to a lair anywhere in a home. From behind the mirror in a bathroom, to fireplaces, bookshelves, and seamlessly blending into a stone wall.

Source: hidden passageway

Source: hidden passageway

He's created some pretty elaborate hidden passage solutions: hot tubs coming up out of the floor, entire stairwells being lifted up into the air, Humble's run the gamut of creative designs. HGTV and CNBC ran features on Humble and his business, and the dude's making quite a good living for himself simply creating what he loves.

Source: hidden passageway

Source: hidden passageway

His attention to detail is admirable as well: opening the entrances to your secret lair could look like anything you'd want. Feel like moving a chess piece to crack open the wall to access your hidden liquor cabinet? Humble and his team can do that. Want to flick a light switch? Sure, why not. You could also do something normal like hitting the button on a remote, but I'd definitely opt for the retinal scanner behind the painting of Abraham Lincoln if that's an option. But that's me.

Source: hidden passageway

Are any of these designs getting your creative juices flowing? Picture it: you're hosting a house party at your place that you didn't really want to hold in the first place. Guests are bringing their noisy, annoying kids that just keep running amuck. You can't think straight and you don't feel like talking about how "crazy" the property taxes are in your area with Bill anymore.

So you slink away to go to the "bathroom" and when no one's looking, slink away to your private lair. You close the door behind you and can finally have some peace and quiet to yourself so you can just outright relax.

Source: hidden passageway

Source: hidden passageway

By the time you return back to the party, you're sufficiently relaxed that nothing will bother you. And who do you have to thank for that? The company that made your secret door to your hidden lair. That's who.